Archive for January, 2011

Either there is no international comparative record keeping of floods, extreme heat waves, blizzards, landslides, and other Global Warming destruction in 2010, or record keepers have orders to keep quiet. But a close look at insurance industry records reveals 2010 as well above average for losses. Only the poverty of Third World Countries, such as Haiti, Chili and Pakistan, where most victims don’t have casualty insurance, prevents insurance company collapses, more than all of Hong Kong’s economy.” The only redeeming help for the insurance industry is that “disasters often struck poor areas without heavy insurance, such as Haiti,” Swiss Re concluded.

Sally Roberts, writing for Business Insurance, warns: “The first quarter of 2010 likely will be the worst-ever first quarter for natural catastrophe losses . . .” Oliver Suess and Sarah Frier, Bloomburg reporters, add: “Insurers’ losses from natural catastrophes, including the February earthquake in Chile, totaled $22 billion in the first half of the year, more than double the average for the period since 2000 . . .” By the end of the year those losses totaled $ 222 billion.

Peter Hoeppe, head of the Risks Research Department for Munic Re, an insurance statistic company, reports that three horrific disasters in the first half of last year were exceedingly high in their record books: earthquakes in Chile and Haiti and storms in Europe. He reports: “”The Haiti and Chile earthquakes in particular rank among the most devastating events ever recorded. . . . European winter storm Xynthia, which swept across Portugal, Spain, France and Germany in February, is expected to cost insurers $ 3.4 billion.” The Swiss Re insurance research body sums 2010 losses: “Disasters caused $ 222 billion in economic losses in 2010

Moreover, these record keepers name Global Warming as the major cause of these disasters. Insurance Information Institute President, Bob Hartwig said in a Munich Re conference call: “Global warming has already and will in the future contribute to the increase in the probability of these events.” In that call, Hoppe added: “Losses from natural catastrophes caused by climate change will rise . . .”

Insurance companies shell out billions, thereby giving illusion that the Earth can be put back together again. They claim that only the havoc wrought by Global Warming in 2005, comes close to that of 2010. But those monetary losses cannot match those following the collapse of the world economies in 2008, when trillions in wealth disappeared, without explanation. More secrets! Those knowing Christ as Savior remember His promise in wholesale Christian Bibles: “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad (Luke 8: 17).” Readers should make sure they are in Christ when these and all secrets that are not covered by His blood will be revealed!

Around the world, droughts in 2010 have caused more heat waves, initiated more crop losses, dried up more fresh water sources, and afflicted more economies than any other time in recent history. It simply did not rain enough last year. Prior records of drought seasons are shattered. The Christian Science Monitor lists droughts in China and Brazil among their list of the “Top Ten Global Weather Events of 2010.” China’s state-run media admitted: “Over 50 million people are affected by a severe drought . . . The lack of rain and unseasonably high temperatures has also left 16 million people without easy access to drinking water.”

Forest scientist Simon Lewis finds that drought in the Amazon area brought record low water levels and increases in forest fires. In fact, it is quite possible that the world’s largest rain forest could be drying out. He writes that the Amazon is experiencing the third extreme drought in a decade, but last year’s may be the worse. This is disastrous because “the Amazon holds 20 percent of the Earth’s fresh water and generates a fifth of its oxygen.” Lewis further explains: “With the planet’s climate increasingly threatened by surging carbon emissions, the Amazon has been one of the few forces keeping them in check. But the latest scientific evidence suggests the forest may be unable to shield us from a hotter world.”

In addition, according to the Associated Press, record drought among nations in the Caribbean has shut down schools and courtrooms, and initiated water emergencies, forest fires and prison protests. Public water taps are dried out, and families are forced to relocate to areas with better water sources. Dams operate well below capacity, and governments have initiated strict water rationing laws.

Aiguo Dai, a scientist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, summarizing his team’s projections on future droughts states: “We are facing the possibility of widespread drought in the coming decades, but this has yet to be fully recognized by both the public and the climate research community. If the projections in the study come even close to be realized, the consequences for society worldwide will be enormous.”

Apparently the world is bereft of solutions for the overwhelming problems Global Warming has hatched, and its leaders may well know it. In suicidal pacts of greed, a few men seem determined to destroy the earth for the sake of power and profit. And at this late date, only Almighty God can stop them. An entry in Christian Prayer Books shows one way to plead for His help: “Dear Father, we humbly ask Your forgiveness that we have not exercised rightful stewardship over this planet, the home You have given us. We beg your graceful forgiveness that we have allowed Global Warming to triumph for so long. Please give our leaders the solutions we need. And please grant us the time to restore the Earth’s correct balance. In The Everlasting Name of Our Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.”

Now that last year is finally over with all of its wacky weather patterns, now is a good time to review the Global Warming Records that year has set. Several scientific organizations throughout the world insist that 2010 was the hottest year on the planet. While some weather experts in the United States insist that 2005 was the hottest year with 2010 coming in second, the NASA Space Agency insists that 2010 was number one. According to Meteorologist Paul Yeager, NASA found all-time record heat was recorded in 19 nations last year. This is highest number of all-time records in a single year. And NASA’S Goddard Institute for Space Studies claims that from January to November last year was the warmest in 131 years.

Although only a few hundreds of a degree of temperature separates the records of 2005 and 2010, records from the National Climatic Data Center indicate that the first six months of 2010 were absolutely the hottest ever, and their records go back to 1880. The Center also reports that 2010 saw the lowest extent of Arctic ice, since the Center––which boasts the largest archive of data from weather bureaus around the world––started keeping Arctic records in 1979.

Moreover, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) agrees with those conclusions. “This confirms the trend, the warming trend,” Michel Jarraud, WMO Secretary-General stated. That “trend” confirms that all the top ten warmest years on the planet have occurred since 1998. He added that the same is true in different parts of the world. John Collins Rudolf, in the Green Blog for the New York Times, adds: “The year was also marked by extreme weather events, from a record-breaking heat wave in Russia in July to catastrophic floods in Pakistan. At least 17 nations, many in Asia, set all-time single-day heat records. Abnormally high sea temperatures were also blamed for a global bleaching of coral reefs.”

These trends indicate that this blogger is correct in advising readers to get ready for an even hotter summer ahead. Now is the time to stock up on wholesale Christian tee shirts, cotton shorts and blouses and other clothing for hot weather; portable, ceiling, electric and hand fans; stacks of ice in freezers and extra coolers to preserve food during power black outs; coolant and air conditioning supplies to use after flushing out car radiators; long-term battery operated radios and flashlights; and plenty of canned-goods and dry food items that don’t require heat for cooking. Also please work with community organizations to make sure that adequate cool areas will be available for senior citizens, the handicapped and others who would not survive in the sweltering temperatures coming in 2011!

This just in!!! As I promised Earth End readers, here is the explosive truth about manufacturers poisoning the drinking water in American cities with a cancer-causing chemical called chromium. As we go to press, it is now established that some 40 American cities have potentially unsafe drinking water. Up to 89% of the water sources in these towns contain as much as six times the reasonable levels of this chemical. Scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Toxicology Program link chromium to cancer. But the EPA has no policy in place to stop such dumping. This governmental agency, founded to protect American people from anti-environment corporate practices, does not require cities to test for this chemical. EPA has not even established limits for the amount of chromium allowable in the public water systems. So, California, the usual vanguard state, has called for such testing and limits on its own.

Not since Julia Roberts won an Academy Award for her role in “Erin Brockovich” has the subject of this carcinogen been under public scrutiny. The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., estimates that “at least 74 million Americans in 42 states drink tap water polluted with hexavalent chromium.” Steel and pulp mills dump this nasty stuff into the water that American people drink. Metal-plating and leather-tanning companies do so as well. Those cities with the highest level of this chemical in their drinking water include: Norman (Oklahoma), Honolulu, Riverside and San Jose (California), Chicago and Boston.

As in the Roberts movie, the responsibility for this chemical dumping rests squarely on the sh oulders of mega-corporations, and cooperating governments. Michael Hawthorne, of the Chicago Tribune, reveals that in 2009, “the U.S. Steel and Arcelor Mittal Mills dumped 3,100 pounds of chromium in Lake Michigan and its tributaries.” Another blogger, Minkoff Minx, reveals that various forms of chromium are used by industries that manufacture: tanning leather, metal plating objects, wood stains, textile dyes, stainless steel, etc. This chemical is also a by-product from welding, smelting and concrete industries.

I will have more on this subject in my next report. For now, suffice it to say that it is not even known if bottled water is clean from this contaminant. Some environments advise comsumers to buy “effective water filters” as a precaution. I have asked our organization, the International Association of Truth Telling Women Journalists, to issue urgent community action bulletins about this problem. And perhaps it would be a good idea if Jael could solicit stores to make wholesale Christian t-shirts with messages insisting that companies and governments at least give the American public pure clean drinking water!

If political and business leaders continue to delay addressing man-made causes of Global Warming, it will increasingly affect world economies in the coming months and years. Overwhelmingly oppressive summer heat, biting cold stormy winters, floods, hurricanes, volcano eruptions, drying fresh waters, polluted air and oceans, dying trees and vegetation, threatened and disappearing species, etc.––all cannot go on without massively affecting human lives and national economies. History shows that severely afflicted economies lead to starvation, collapsed civil governments and hopeless populations––and eventually to wars. In vicious cycles, wars simply bring more poverty and devastation. World economies now dance around possibilities of collapse, which no one seems capable of stopping.

Various secular prophets, including French seer Nostradamus, insist that the world has already been afflicted by two antiChrist figures: Napoleon and Hitler. It is estimated that Napoleon killed three to six million people in his military and Haitian colony campaigns. But using more advanced military technology, Hitler is responsible for the deaths of some 50 million people during World War II. With nine billion people now living on the face of the earth, Biblical prophecy predicts that two thirds of these will die from the world wars incited by the last antiChrist, whose sole purpose, like Satan, his spiritual father, is to kill, steal and destroy (John 10: 10). This destruction will not only be advanced by technologies like atom and nuclear bombs, but by new and galloping diseases, famine, and poisonous elements in air, earth and water.

Because of these explosions of technologies and populations, there is no better time in the history of the world for Christians to exercise faith in the second half of John 10: 10 where Christ said: but “I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Parts of the Bible (i.e. the minor prophet Joel) promise a great outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit bringing salvation to billions, before the end comes. But such revival cannot come from a Body of inert Christians. True revival begins––not in the world––but with Christians crying out to God in earnest prayer and deep repentance. Wearing wholesale Christian t-shirts, attending church services, and giving offerings is not enough. God so loved these nine billion people that He gave His Only Son to die for them (John 3: 16). The question now is, do Christians love them enough to pray, give and “go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” as Christ commanded in Mark 16: 15. If not, Global Warming insures that the last antiChrist will take charge sooner, rather than later.

Bea: John, John its me Bea! Has ya been readin Jael’s blogs this week? ‘bout the ways Christians bein’ treated in some places?

John: Yes Bea I has. What you think ‘bout all this?

Bea: My Lord. It’s frightenin. We use ta get up offerings for missions in church sometimes. But nobody knew all of this was goin‘ on. How come we’s didn‘ knows people getting sacrificed just cause there’s Christians?

John: This is what Jael’s been talking ‘bout. We’s in the last days Bea, and we all have to buckle up and do more! Bea is ya listening?

Bea: And children bein’ forced to give up Christian upbringin and swear to follow Islam! Why that’s dawnrigh criminal! How does them dogs gets away with that? How does their’s parents let ‘em get away with that?

John: Its cause they live in places of super control, called police states, where peoples have no rights, and no free press, and no opposition to anything. Don’t you realize that Bea?

Bea: Well course I do. The pastors preach ‘bout these things sometime. I’s ain’t ignorant John. It’s just that sometimes I don’t like to see or hear about these unpleasantrees. They can be upsetting and I have to watch my health. But John, remember I go with the Ladies Auxiliary to serve in them Mission Kitchens durin’ holidays. And I’s been a good God-fearin mother and wife.

John: Ya got to realize Bee. But being Christian’s more than just goin’ ta church and buying and giving and wearing them wholesale Christian t-shirts. Its lovin’ and carin’ and and forgivin’ and givin’ and prayin’. And its carin ‘bout others even if they ain’t the same or look the same as you. Its carin’ for peoples both at home and abroad. Don’t ya see that Bea?

Bea: I know John. I know. I does what I cans when I gets the times.

John: O.K. Bea. Have you called Jude yet? And that neighbor of his ya was so upset ‘bout, Ethel Mae Johnson? She’s a widow woman tryin’ to care for her daughter’s orphaned children. She could use a Christian ladies’ help Bea. She wrote a letter to Jael sayin’ she hoped to meet you sometime.

Bea: I knows. I knows John. I’m gonna call ‘em soon. I just ain’t got round to it yet. But I’s gonna.

This reporter rushes to add to current updates on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. At least one nation not covered in the current Earth End series is Sudan. I and other international members of the International Association of Truth Telling Women Journalists (IATTWJ) are encouraged for this opportunity to go behind media headlines about the vote to separate North and South Sudan. The battle between often-vicious Muslims in the North and often-slaughtered Christians in the South has been raging for some 50 years.

In the Middle East Quarterly, Francis M. Deng summarizes: “Over two million people have died as a result of the war and related causes, such as war-induced famine. About five million people have been displaced, while half a million more have fled across an international border. Tens of thousands of women and children have been abducted and subjected to slavery. By all accounts, it appears to be the worst humanitarian disaster in the world today.” Most of those victims killed, displaced and enslaved are Christians.

Thanks to decades-long increasing international sanctions, particularly from the Obama administration, North Sudan agreed to a recent referendum allowing the South to separate and form a separate nation. And various news sources report this week that the overwhelming majority of voters in South Sudan voted to separate from the North. So at last there may be hope after this 50 year struggle.

But three factors loom on this happy horizon: 1) Opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi threatens civil war against the current Omar al-Bashir, who has ruled Sudan with an iron hand for some 23 years; 2) Some half-million Christians living in North Sudan expect more severe persecution after the election, including stronger enforcement to convert to Islam or give up homes and businesses and relocate to the new country in South Sudan; and 3) Allocation of profits from oil deposits in South Sudan shipped through pipelines in North Sudan––a factor which in itself has aggravated this half-century struggle.

Thanks to this open door from Jael Ever and Earth Ending, I will submit updates on these developments in future IATTWJ Reports. For now please join me and my fellow journalists in using examples from Christian prayer books to thank God for the victory vote in Sudan, to pray for Christians now trying to establish a new and separate nation, and to pray for believers left behind in the North Sudan.

Responding to Jael’s blog on the persecution of Christians who have lived for generations in countries with majority Muslim populations, please allow me, Sandra Repriestly, to add specifics and comments. As you remember, I lead an association of women journalists. For years, underground sources have sent us reports about these attacks against Christian believers in the Middle East.

For instance, we know that many Iraqi Christians stealthily sent their children to Turkey last year, hoping to shield them from the murderous attacks on Christians in Iraq. In that country on October 31, 53 Christians were killed during worship services. An al-Qaeda group took responsibility. Other reports tell of Christian-owned businesses burned to the ground. Moreover, Christians were warned that if they don’t convert to Islamic faith, they will be killed. One night in December, within 30 minutes, 14 bombs were placed near Christian homes in Baghdad. Older believers relate the present persecution to the time some 50 years ago when Jews were forced to flee Iraq. Other believers strongly claim that the misery from Iraqi persecutors started when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

Similar attacks against Christians are taking place in Egypt. On December 31, 21 Christians were killed and 79 others injured while attending Services at the Saints Coptic Church in Alexandria. Although other Christians suffered attacks in Egypt in the past few years, this was undoubtedly the most vicious. Unlike those in Iraq, Egyptian Christians, who make up 10 percent of the population in that country, often react to such attacks. Sometimes they march in protest. But last November when police stopped construction of a new church, hundreds of Christians rioted in Cairo. Just last week a gunman attacked Christians on a train headed for Cairo, killing a 71-year old Christian man and wounding five other believers. We were also shocked to learn that an al-Qaeda website advertises an instruction manual on building bombs with the intent of “destroying the cross.”

Christians in Indonesia endure similar attacks. In December, shots were fired into the Muria Christian Church in Surakarta, Central Java. Muria is part of the U.S. based-Mennonite World Conference. And terrorist threw Molotov cocktails at the Jesus The King Catholic Church also in Surakarta. As in other Muslim countries, Christians make up nine percent of the Indonesian population.

These reports forebode increasing oppression of Christians and Jews. And be forewarned––such attacks will go beyond the Middle East. Among His Bible prophecies, The LORD Jesus warned: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24: 21-22). And in Revelation 22: 20, He said, “Surely I come quickly. Amen.” Yes, quickly!

Is it not ironic that Christians in Iraq now suffer persecution and even death as a fall-out from a war with Iraq that the United States, a supposed Christian country, precipitated? Is it not more strange that there has been little fanfare from Christian leaders in the United States, including some politicians who wear the Christian mantra––most of whom supported the Iraq invasion? Is anyone noticing that this anti-Christian fervor has spread to Egypt, Indonesia and other Muslim nations?

Should not one wonder why American officials often speak out, bending over backward, to protect Muslims and mosques in this country, but seem to have done little to protect Christians and churches in Muslim countries? Do they not realize that the deaths and injuries from attacks against Christians in the Muslim world are increasing? One must also wonder if it is because professing Christians suffering in these countries are not of the same denominations, sects, parties, or clubs of professing Christians in this country?

But of course those innocent Muslims under attack in this country were not of the same denomination or sect either? And of course, is there not outrage from Christian leaders in this country when Israel is attacked or called into question? Then, why no outrage when Christians are attacked overseas? Why did President Obama only make his statement against these attacks on Religious Freedom Day: “We condemn the attacks made in recent months against Christians in Iraq and Egypt, along with attacks against people of all backgrounds and beliefs . . .”? Why did he just advocate for “free religious expression around the world”?

Why does the blog site Hot Air mention that members of Congress are urging the President to speak out more forcefully on this issue of Christian persecution? And is that blog correct in reporting that the White House has not adequately responded to warnings from Congressmen in both parties that tepid responses to attacks against Christians “promises more innocent Christian blood in Iraq, more turmoil in that country, and more shame for America”? And is Congresswoman Anna Eshoo correct when she insists that there were 1.4 million Christians, or three percent of the population, in Iraq before the U.S. invasion, and today, through a mass exodus and violence only about 400,000 remain?

What do professing Christians, especially politicians and clergymen, think the Bible means by the term, Body of Christ, or the phrase “love the brotherhood”? Do they think that the words “body,” “love,” or “brotherhood” are simply part of some Christian word puzzles? Are they not aware that the Apostle Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 12, that in that Body, when the foot hurts, the Body aches, and when the arm is wounded, the whole Body suffers immeasurably? So then why do some professing Christians still show so little concern for others in The Body? Or how does one discern between profession and reality? How indeed?

At last, one major media outlet has connected the wacky weather dots and concluded that the world is under attack by Global Warming. Linking together the flooding in Australia, Brazil, and Sri Lanka; the unusual snow storms in 49 of 50 American states; and the fact that 2010 tied for the hottest year on record––ABC News concluded that Global Warming was the culprit. Linsey Davis and Jennifer Metz, the ABC reporters who broke the story on January 13th, interviewed Climate Change scientists who insist that Global Warming’s worse is yet to come.

ABC’s article includes a quote from Richard Sommerville, a climate scientist at the University of California at San Diego who argues: “If left unchecked, climate warming will continue so the things that we’re having hints of now, foretastes of now, will come stronger.” Author of “The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change,” Sommerville told ABC that “The world is warming up … It’s warming for sure and science is very confident that most of the warming is due to human causes.”

Sommerville explains that the entire water cycle intensifies and speeds up in a “warming world.” He says that increasing water in the atmosphere causes the heavier rains and flooding now pelting the earth. He concludes: “The world is warming up . . . It’s warming for sure and science is very confident that most of the warming is due to human causes.” One can only wonder how long it will take the rest of the mainstream media to start writing continuous headlines that tell the truth about Global Warming––continuing until the public pressures governments and corporations to aggressively attack the industrial causes for Global Warming. But political squabbling, Wall Street profiteering, and aspirations to lower world populations to “controllable” numbers interfere with such aggressive reporting.

This blog often writes about the Biblical requirement for the watchman at the nation’s gate. Ezekiel, Chapter 33, in wholesale Christian Bibles, warns the watchman: “If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” Major media outlets are the world’s watchmen. And if they don’t start consistently blaring the truth about Global Warming, they ultimately share responsibility with the corporate scions and abetting politicians who cause, continue and deny the man-made industrial causes for Global Warming.